Henderson's Gene's restaurant closing its doors

A Henderson institution draws to an end as Gene's Restaurant & Bar-B-Que prepares to close on North Green Street.

It closes at 2 p.m. Tuesday, just after its final lunch crowd.

But the goodbyes began Monday with hugs between Gene's regulars and longtime staffers such as waitress Joyce Sheffer.

"It's time for a change," Zack Thomason, who co-owns the restaurant with his mother, Glennis, said Monday.

Named for his late father, the restaurant at 1095 N. Green St. has been operated as Gene's by the Thomason family for 35 years.

But its history dates back even further, to the early 1960s when the late Bob Gregory converted a Dog ‘N Suds drive-in into Greg's Chick-N, then later added breakfast.

In a 2000 interview, Gregory — who owned or worked at more than a dozen restaurants here over a half-century career — said he was worried that the construction and opening of the nearby U.S. 41-Bypass would divert traffic away from busy North Green Street, which at the time carried both U.S. 60 and U.S. 41 traffic. He feared that the bypass would divert too much traffic from his restaurant, even as the construction workers building the highway proved to be some of his most loyal customers.

When the bypass did open, "I thought I was ruined," Gregory said in that interview.

"But it was the best thing that ever happened," he said. "It got the truck traffic off Green Street" and made it easier for diners to pull into his restaurant.

In 1978, Gregory — who by then owned or was partners in four restaurants here — sold Greg's to Gene Thomason, a route salesman for Troutman's Meats who delivered to Gregory's restaurant.

Thomason's wife, Glennis — who had worked for Gregory at the former Green Gables drive-in — joined the business, which became Gene's. Zack Thomason joined the restaurant the following year.

The Thomasons grew and expanded the business, adding a front room and building a catering business.

Over 30 years, Gene Thomason developed a reputation among friends and customers for a relentless work ethic; by 5 a.m. or earlier, he would be in the kitchen baking pies or preparing breakfast, and would be on the job many hours later.

"He was the hardest worker in the business and always had been," Gregory said in 2009 after Gene Thomason died.